Doing our bit for ‘ch-ch-charidee mate’: The Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show 2011

Back in July I posted about our involvement with Breast Cancer Care and our charitable creative donation to help them out with the look and feel for their annual fundraiser… The Fashion Show.

Time fly’s when you’re having fun and although (at the time) October seemed a million miles away, it soon came around, culminating in the main event last night at The Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane, London.

Myself and El Capitano… aka Rob… did the honorable thing and volunteered ourselves to go along and ‘represent’… as well socialising with the celebs, having a 3-course meal (with chocolates and coffee), dancing the night away and making the most of the array of wines someone had ‘left’ on our table (some people never learn!). I know what you’re thinking… tough gig… but hey, someones got to do it right?

You won’t be too shocked to hear that we (and our lovely ladies) had a fantastic evening.

Full credit must go to the Breast Cancer Care Events Team that worked so hard to make it a success. They have every right to be very very proud of what they achieved and the money that was raised. It really was a magnificent event to be a part of, so thank you and well done to all of you.

You also probably won’t be too shocked to hear that Rob and I were beaming with an immense sense of pride at seeing all ‘our teams’ handy-work draped just about everywhere it could be around The Great Room. From the stage graphics to the animations, menus, the programme, banners and seating plan… our creativity knew no bounds. So here comes another thank you, a big thank you to all the Escapees involved in making our creative donation what it was. Great work team (yet again).

Obviously the prime objective of the evening was to raise awareness of the illness, shout about the work the charity does on behalf of Breast Cancer sufferers and try and make you part with as much cash as is humanly possible. I’m really pleased to say that they managed the latter to devastating effect! The Silent Auction raised just short of £36 grand. I lost track of the main auction but I’d guess it was somewhere in the region of £80 grand, plus there was donation based games, raffles and other stuff. I truly admire those people attending last night that (in tough economic times) were so willing to give generously to such a great cause.  I’d also like to reserve a special mention for the head auctioneer. To say he was ‘in the zone’ would be the understatement of the century. He was brilliant, cajoling and encouraging bidders to go higher and higher. I’m sure you could credit an extra £20 grand just to his talent of working the room. I’m afraid I don’t know your name sir but I take my hat off to you. A job very well done. Rob and I obviously dipped our hands in our own pockets but kept them well and truly pinned under our buttocks throughout the main auction, I think if you’d so much as blinked in the head auctioneers direction you would have been bidding for a cruise around the Med!

We rounded a thoroughly enjoyable evening off listening to M-People lead singer Heather Small banging out some of her ‘greatest hits’, throwing a few shapes around on the dancefloor (and anywhere else we could to be honest) before we headed outside to stumble into our car home. Before you knew it we were indulging in a few nightcaps in the car, Kate (Robs wife) was demolishing a pack of sandwiches, there was a quick stop for a Crunchie and a bag of Walkers Worcester Sauce crisps and before you could say “we’ve got to be in the office in 5 hours”… the hangover was kicking in.

It’s fair to say no Escape night out would be complete without photographic evidence, so here it is in its complete glory, courtesy of our friend Flikr…

Also, in case you’re interested, here’s our advert that was in the main programme…